D.A. turned bounty hunter keeps pages turning in 'Rage Factor'

Book review

Bounty hunter Dixie Flannigan doesn't make a habit of following the trials of those fugitives she brings back for justice. But she has a personal interest in the outcome of her latest assignment.

Lawrence Coombs, who hails from one of Houston's wealthy, politically connected families, is on trial for rape and battery. When Dixie tracks him down and attempts to detain him for the police, he tries to sexually attack her. During the scuffle, he fractures her leg.

Now Dixie not only is a bounty hunter, but a reliable witness during his trial. She and the other women who testified against Coombs are stunned when he is acquitted.

But then the villain becomes the victim: Coombs is kidnapped and attacked. Dixie fears that his other victims may be forming a vigilante group, especially when a woman accused of abusing her 5-year-old also is acquitted and then vanishes. Dixie grows concerned that her closest friend, prosecutor Brenda Benson, might be the group's leader.

In ''Rage Factor'' (Bantam, $22.95), author Chris Rogers delivers an action-packed, sharply plotted story with well-developed characters. As Dixie worries that her friend is working outside the system, she also examines her own conscience. Dixie watched too many criminals go free during her 10 years as an assistant district attorney, feeling ''frustration with Texas' swinging-door justice.'' She now has a more hands-on involvement with justice on ''the fringes of the judicial system bounty hunter, bodyguard, occasionally a finder of lost persons.''

But Rogers is not content to have her heroine working only one case. Dixie also is providing security for the teen-age daughter of a famous actress filming a movie in Houston. Rogers smoothly integrates the two stories without a false start, making a cohesive ''Rage Factor.''

Rogers, regional vice president of the Southeast Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, handles characters like a seasoned pro. The author is careful not to make Dixie larger than life. Although physically small, Dixie uses her keen intelligence and martial arts skills to bring in the bad guys. As an abused child, Dixie is hypersensitive to crime victims.

She can't deny ''the moment of jubilation'' hearing that Coombs had become the victim instead of the victimizer.

Yet, Dixie also believes in the judicial system. ''Only God and State were allowed to mete out punishment. Did that mean monsters who could flummox the system should be exempt from punishment?''

In Lawrence Coombs, the author creates not only a nasty, vile villain, but one who is chillingly realistic. Coombs' charming surface barely covers his heartlessness and deep-seated hatred of women. But this is no one-dimensional brute. Rogers explores the depths of his evil and his ''black rage.''

Rogers' first mystery, ''Bitch Factor,'' was one of the strongest debuts of 1998. Yet the author surpasses her own work with ''Rage Factor.'' Women bounty hunters are a hot trend in mysteries, spurred by the success of Janet Evanovich, who mixes slapstick humor in her Stephanie Plum series. Rogers' serious direction works well for the suspenseful ''Rage Factor'' and proves that the author is not just launching onto a genre fad.